The Blues began the year with hopes of being a premiership contender. But they've had one win and four losses and now Steele and star recruit Guy Orton face weeks out with injury, beginning with Saturday's daunting challenge at Marrar.

Steele expects to miss three games with his torn hamstring, hoping to return after the long weekend.

But Orton is facing at least a month out. He has a hamstring strain but has also been battling a knee problem.

"He was going to miss a couple of weeks but he's probably got to get his knee cleaned out (in early June)," Steele said.

"There's bit of cartilage floating around in there so hopefully that's just a couple of weeks out and then back into it."

Among a host of changes the Blues welcome back Dan Peruzzi and big man Brendan Hardy, both from ankle injuries, but centre-half-forward Tom Collison is unavailable.

Jade Hodge is named at centre-half-forward with Shane Pound at full-forward.

A handful of outs was the last thing the Blues needed as they look to turn their season at around.

"Not when we're trying to string a few wins together, but that's footy. It doesn't matter who you've got on paper, if you can't keep them on the field with injuries it's bloody hard," Steele said.

"They don't really help but we've still got a positive mindset. We think we can surely shake things up in the second half of the season if we get our team together and some players back.

"But we're not panicking. We can still get a lot out of these next few weeks, bringing a few players in and trying a few different things.

"It's definitely not panic stations."

Steele said it's no secret they'll need to stop the league's leading goalkicker, James Lawton, at Marrar.

"We want to be a lot more competitive for four quarters and obviously our main target is to stop 'Jimbo'," Steele said.

"He's the only one that's been kicking a handful of goals for them. We'll put a lot of time and effort into him to try to shut him down, and get their delivery out of the midfield to slow down."

After the ladder leaders on Saturday, the Blues will round out the first half of the season with games against Barellan and the Northern Jets, before the second half starts at Charles Sturt University.

"Fingers crossed they work out in our favour and in the second half of the season we can give it a bit of a shake and hopefully make finals," Steele said.

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